Rutter happy with Knockhill showing

MICHAEL Rutter has hailed a brilliant weekend in the British Superbike Championship.

The Kingswinford rider was pleased with his efforts at the Knockhill circuit in Fife, Scotland, last weekend.

Four rounds into the championship and it looked like it was shaping up to be Rutter’s best round yet aboard his Bathams Prizewinning Ales BMW.

Having clocked respectable lap times in the early practice sessions, Rutter qualified in ninth place and a good start in race one looked promising. However, issues with the BMW’s clutch meant efforts were thwarted and a 13th place finish was all that ‘The Blade’ could manage.

With the problem resolved for race two, the BMW 1000RR was back on track to enable Rutter to finish in a competitive 10th place.

He said: “It’s been a brilliant weekend for me. We’ve been in the top seven all weekend until the first race - which I think, if we didn’t have the problem, we could have had at least an eighth place finish in. Because of my lap times in race one I ended up on the fifth row of the grid for race two and that’s tough at Knockhill because it’s very twisty with not many overtaking places - so I’m well happy with 10th. I’m hoping we can get some upgraded engine parts for Brands Hatch as our bike has a standard engine in at the moment and we definitely need more speed”.

Rutter will head to Brands Hatch in Kent to compete from July 18 to 20 for round five of the British Superbike Championship.